![]() She maintained a lavish lifestyle in San Francisco, possibly financed at least partially by her mother out of her Esprit fortune, and in 1997 married into one of that city’s oldest families, the Walkers. On the surface, Summer seemed intent on living down to her father’s expectations. Tompkins’ relationship with Summer was “complicated,” as Adam Streisand, a lawyer for Doug’s estate, put it. He didn’t exactly set down legal roots in South America, however although he traveled extensively in Chile and Argentina, he did so on tourist visas. He even sought - and won - a tax rebate from California on income he had earned while out of the country. citizenship (the higher tax rates he’d have to pay as a citizen of Chile or Argentina may have stayed his hand). He described himself as “not much of a patriot,” and inquired about the process of abandoning his U.S. court outlined Tompkins’ disaffection with his native land. Documents acquired by Summer’s team through discovery in the U.S. That award may not have been such a wise move, as it reinforced Summer’s claim that Tompkins’ official domicile was Chile. These activities made Tompkins a hero to conservationists and the Chilean government, which “posthumously awarded him honorary citizenship,” according to court papers filed by Summer. ![]() Tompkins acquired some 2 million acres of wilderness in Patagonia and neighboring regions and placed them in the hands of conservation trusts he helped establish. From 1992 on they would devote themselves to conservation in South America. In the early 1990s Doug sold off his interests in the North Face and Esprit, Kris retired from Patagonia, and the couple essentially went off the grid. Doug married Kristine McDivitt, a protege of Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard and later Patagonia’s CEO. Esprit’s sales exceeded $800 million by 1986, but the Tompkinses soon divorced and later had a spat over control of the company. Tompkins sold the North Face in 1968 for $50,000, then he and Susie launched Esprit, an apparel line that appears to have generated the core of the estate. They opened their first retail store in San Francisco’s North Beach two years later according to legend, the Grateful Dead played at the grand opening. Tompkins and his first wife, Susie - Summer’s mother - founded the North Face in 1964 as a catalog shop for outdoors aficionados and climbers. The Tompkins will may be embroiled in the complexities of international probate law, but the source of the legacy is simpler. Quincey isn’t a party to Summer’s lawsuit, but she may be sitting pretty whatever the outcome - she’s listed as an officer of the Foundation for Deep Ecology, one of Doug’s conservation charities, the goals of which would be upheld if Summer loses if Summer wins, Quincey presumably would be in line for a share of the bequest. Neither Summer nor her elder sister, Quincey Imhoff, could be reached, and Summer’s attorneys declined comment. In other words, Doug Tompkins’ legacy is still up for grabs. The same day she filed suit in Chile to nullify Tompkins’ will, setting up a potential international courthouse tangle. Green threw out her challenge of the will. Summer lost the first round of her battle in Los Angeles state court on Sept. ![]() Summer, they say, is out to “deliberately imperil her father’s philanthropy” only to make herself richer. But in the view of the estate’s trustees, including Tompkins’ second wife, Kris, the fight is about principle as well as money. Summer Tompkins Walker on her lavish nuptials-but what did her conservationist father think?Īt stake is a share of an estate that could be worth several hundred million dollars. The push is coming from Summer, 50, the younger daughter, a wealthy San Francisco socialite who asserts that the laws of Chile, not California, should govern the disposition of the estate -and Chilean law forbids disinheriting a child.Įven if it hadn’t been my wedding, I would have been totally blown away. And now the push is on to overturn his clearly expressed wishes. Tompkins died in a kayaking accident in Chile in 2015 at the age of 72. “That stunts people’s development, it does not motivate them to grow, to develop themselves.” “I don’t think that inheritances are good for the upbringing of children,” he told a Chilean interviewer. He also was explicit about where he did not want the money to go: to his daughters, Summer and Quincey, and their children. Doug Tompkins had very strong views about how the fortune he made from founding the clothing and sporting gear companies Esprit and the North Face should be spent after his death: on the creation and preservation of eight national parks in Chile and Argentina, where he spent the last 20 years of his life.
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